This past week I had the great opportunity to attend The Summit. The Summit is an annual gathering hosted by Thriving, as a yearly collaborative by which urban leaders from global contexts gather for encouragement, relationship building, training, and resourcing.
The goal is to foster dialogue among those who are actively engaged in local church connected and submitted to urban ministry; as well as those who aspire to do so.
This years’s Summit focused on “Called to the under-engaged urban context.”
Takeaways:
1. I’m not alone - When thinking through inner city church planting or church planting in general it is easy to feel lonely and isolated. The weight of the loneliness and that lack of immediate fruit can cause you to question everything from your salvation and especially your calling to plant a church. Before the conference even began I quickly realized I am not alone. I met men from all over the country. From East coast to West coast, and brothers reppin’ the dirty South. Many of whom are facing the same difficulties, tension, and questions that I do. This was very reassuring to know that though the road to planting in the hood is difficult and extensive, I do not have to walk it alone.
2. Theological IQ must be matched with Street EQ - In other words, you must have your head in the books and your feet firmly planted on the block. It was made crystal clear that rich orthodoxy is vital to the life of an inner city planter, but that’s not nearly enough. One must also have rich orthoproxy , that is credible to the people in the hood. It is not enough to have one or the other. If you simply have good doctrine you will not survive long in the hood. And if you only have street credibility, it will be difficult for a minister to address the core concerns of the people with accurate and precise gospel application. To establish a lasting legacy in the context of today’s inner city, one must be equipped with the IQ of orthodox theology and the EQ of block experience..
3. Honesty - Although I am not alone, we are few, and although we love God’s word and grew up in the hood, very few have been educated and taught how to think critically about the issues and theological implications of those living in the inner city. But what we do have is passion. One of the most important things I learned and one of the most grateful gifts I received as a summit participant is the honesty that was spoken by the panel speakers and lecturers.
Many of those looking to plant in the inner city are but one or a few black or hispanic males, being trained in predominantly suburban white churches or graduating from colleges and seminaries with a degree in Urban Studies that is many times outdated.
I needed to hear the simple yet scathing fact that I am not as ready as I think I am. The inner city struggles already from so many issues, and the last thing they need is another passionate church planter, claiming to save the hood who won’t last more than a couple years. Making promises that he more than likely can’t keep, many times simply because he has not been trained, or has not stewed long enough under the tutelage of a more seasoned pastor or church planter. Most of us are not ready to serve, live, and die in the hoods that we rep with our t-shirts and fitted caps!
This hit home for me after asking about urban church planters who either seemed to be successful, based on their twitter feed or Facebook posts, or were in unexpected absence from such a large gathering of inner city church planters. When asked about these brothers to my dismay I found that they were one or more of three things,
- Not doctrinally sound
- not planting in the inner city at all
- have fallen into sin and lost their ministry
This is a heartbreaking reality of all church planting, but especially for those planting in an inner city context.
The harsh reality is, many of us who came to the conference are not ready in a number of ways (not saying that we should be perfect). Which should give pause to our aspirations of planting and give way to deep introspection of our heart, motives, and preparation thus far.
I’m grateful for all those who organized The Summit. The speakers were superb, the worship was rich, and the relationships established are priceless. After this experience it is more important to me now than before that we take inner city planting from simply “surviving to thriving.”
Recommendation:
If you are an inner city church planter, have a desire to plant in the years to come, or are a church seeking to understand the unique issues facing church plants in the hood, I highly encourage you to attend The Summit next year. It will definitely be on my to-do list for 2012!